Spectacular Solar Storms Light Up Skies Worldwide — Auroras, Grid Risks and a Delayed Rocket Launch

Brilliant auroras and space‑weather disruptions following multiple solar eruptions

Brilliant auroral displays lit the skies Tuesday night and continued into Wednesday as a series of solar storms reached Earth, producing visible colors in places that rarely see them — including parts of the southern United States such as Florida. The National Weather Service's Space Weather Prediction Center reported ongoing geomagnetic storm conditions driven by strong solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). The storms are rated on a G1–G5 scale; forecasters said strength has fluctuated and that auroras could have been visible as far south as Illinois and Oregon during the active interval.

Meteorologists initially warned of a potential severe G4 storm for Thursday, which might have brought auroras back to the northern U.S. at night. By Wednesday, however, forecasters indicated the peak window for G3–G4 conditions may have passed and that activity was generally weakening though still variable.

Beyond producing spectacular northern- and southern‑light shows, geomagnetic storms can interrupt communications, affect satellites and place stress on power grids. The Space Weather Prediction Center said it alerted U.S. power‑grid operators and satellite teams so they could take protective steps; British operators were also monitoring potential impacts closely.

The British Geological Survey described Tuesday's sequence as a "cannibal storm" after two CMEs launched hours apart merged en route to Earth. "The first one was moving more slowly than the second…and so the second one caught up with the first one and they amalgamated together by the time they reached Earth," the survey's geomagnetism team wrote.

"One of them packed a much stronger punch than we would have imagined originally," said Shawn Dahl, a forecaster at the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center. He noted that satellite measurements taken roughly 1 million miles from Earth show not only speed but the magnetic-field strength and orientation — if the CME's field is opposite Earth's, storm intensity can escalate quickly.

The third CME arrived at Earth Wednesday at 2:17 p.m. ET, carrying solar‑wind speeds above about 2.1 million miles per hour (950 kilometers per second). The center said Earth was struck by a far flanking edge of that magnetic cloud, so much of the main structure likely missed the planet. Forecasters cautioned that storm levels between G1 and G3 — and possibly brief G4 conditions — remained possible into Thursday morning.

Commercial space operations were affected: Blue Origin's New Glenn rocket, carrying NASA's ESCAPADE twin satellites, was set to launch Wednesday but was postponed because of elevated solar activity. Blue Origin posted that the vehicle was ready to fly but that NASA delayed the launch until space‑weather conditions improve; another attempt was later scheduled for Thursday.

Solar activity this week came from an active sunspot region designated AR 14274, which produced three X‑class flares — the most powerful type — followed by several CMEs. Ryan French, a solar physicist at the University of Colorado Boulder, said the region could still produce more X‑class flares, though it is rotating away from an Earth‑facing position, reducing the chance that future eruptions will hit us directly.

The British Geological Survey said an X‑class flare on Tuesday generated a solar particle storm — the largest since 2005 — and produced the largest measured geoelectric field since the agency began records in 2012. Disturbances in Earth's magnetic field can induce currents in the ground; on Tuesday researchers measured 3.5 volts per kilometer in the Shetland Islands — an unusually high value that the survey said had not been recorded before. Strong geoelectric fields can interfere with power transformers and, in extreme cases, cause overheating or failure.

Solar activity follows an approximately 11‑year cycle; scientists say the most recent solar maximum peaked in October 2024. Although the cycle is now in its decay phase, that period can still produce very strong flares. When energetic particles from CMEs interact with Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere, they excite gases that produce the colorful aurora borealis and aurora australis. Even when the lights are faint to the eye, camera sensors — including those in phones — can often detect them.

Observers with clear, dark skies were encouraged to watch for auroras that might dip over parts of the U.S. again; in the U.K., sky‑watchers in Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland had good chances of sightings, according to the British Geological Survey. For context, the last G5 storm to hit Earth occurred in May 2024; while severe, it did not match the intensity of the historic 1859 Carrington Event, the strongest geomagnetic storm on record.